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Join Date

May 2008

Posts

2,866

Players can suffer career threatening/changing injuries at any time. Any player that a team signs to a contract carries risks. Owners and players do what they feel is in their best interest to protect themselves. That's just the nature of the business.

The goal of an organization is to field the best team they possibly can within reason. I really wish Bell and the Steelers could had worked out a deal. Bell made the Steelers a better team.

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Join Date

Dec 2008

Posts

835

One upon a time the Steelers had a GM who had a famous quote in reference to signing Rod Woodson "We're not the Salvation Army." Tom Donahoe. I disagreed with his sentiments because Rod Woodson had a lot of good years left when he left the Steelers. I am not sure what Woodson was looking for in a contract at the time.

Understandly RBs want contracts with large guarantees, because of the quick expiration date for that position and the constant risk of injury. But it really doesn't make business sense to give huge guarantees to RBs when you can get similar or better production from a committee approach. It is very charitable for organizations to do that. Kind of like a donation not to the "Salvation Army" but the "Rich, Spoiled Athlete Fund". But predictably this will prove to be a bad investment. It is already looking like bad investment for the Rams to give Gurley the huge guarantee and I think in a year, the Jets and their fans will think it was bad investment to give Bell that much also.

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Join Date

Apr 2017

Posts

7,710

I’m in total agreement with Steelerphile. In a year,The Jets will be in the same boat as the Rams are right now. Remorseful.

From the 2010-2018 season, (An 8 year period that the majority of Cowher's players & coaches had left) Mike Tomlin has only won 3 playoff games. And two of those wins were against back up Quarterbacks. Our history has been defined by what we do in the postseason; not the regular season.

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When Bell scores 20+ TDs in a season, then we can talk about him like he's as talented as Gurley.

Bell's only had more that 10 TDs 2 times. And both were 11 TD seasons.

Heck even James Conner had 13 in his first season despite not even playing in 16 games.

Bell is talented and fun to watch, but not an elite RB. And I'm in agreement that the position is one of the dime a dozen positions.

Bell's versatility made him elite. But James Conner, at a discount of $10 million per season, is very good - and probably actually a better pure runner than Bell - certainly at this stage in his career - and his equal on screen passes. I'll take that minimal dropoff in versatility and the $10 million savings.

I do agree that RB is an easily replaceable position. Elite talent at just about any other position is harder to replace, with a more significant dropoff.

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If RB's are truly a dime a dozen, do the Steelers just let James Conner walk after the 2020 season rather than paying him a market value deal once his rookie contract expires?

And if data shows that teams with elite wideouts don't tend to win Super Bowls, do the Steelers just let Juju Smith-Schuster walk after the 2020 season rather than paying him a market value deal once his rookie contract expires?

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If RB's are truly a dime a dozen, do the Steelers just let James Conner walk after the 2020 season rather than paying him a market value deal once his rookie contract expires?

And if data shows that teams with elite wideouts don't tend to win Super Bowls, do the Steelers just let Juju Smith-Schuster walk after the 2020 season rather than paying him a market value deal once his rookie contract expires?

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Join Date

Sep 2013

Posts

941

Originally Posted by BURGH86STEEL

Players can suffer career threatening/changing injuries at any time.

This is true in the abstract, but very seldom happens in reality. Shazier, Priest Holmes, Stingley . . . I know there are others, but its very rare. What happens a bit more often is they miss a year (ACL tear, collarbone), but even that is relatively rare. It's also fully paid.

Bell was more concerned with getting the highest number for an RB (rapping about 17 or whatever). He failed miserably, and lost money he was guaranteed to have with the Steelers, if he had just signed the Steelers crazy offer that NO ONE else even came close to. Now, he languishes on the Jets and tubes what could have been a more lucrative career with a winning organization. He's a fool, no matter what way you analyze this.